The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), in conjunction with the Federal Climate Complex (FCC), developed the global ISH database to address a pressing need for an integrated global database of hourly surface climatological data. The database of approximately 20,000 stations has data from as early as 1900 (many stations beginning in 1948-1973 time frame), is operationally updated with the latest data, and is now being used by numerous customers in many varied applications. ISH is being quality-controlled in several phases, with a couple of phases now completed. This paper addresses: a) the lessons learned in ISH development, 2) the quality control applied during the initial development, c) the more extended quality control applied after the initial development, d) the current shortcomings and needs for the database, and e) the future plans for quality control and for partnerships.